Iraqi government takes shape

Five weeks before the interim government is due to take over from the US occupation authority on June 30, US officials said the prime minister would be Hussain Shahristani.

Shahristani, a Shia Muslim nuclear scientist who paid for his defiance of Saddam Hussein with torture, prison and exile, told the news agency he did not want the job but was ready to shoulder the responsibility of steering Iraq to elections.

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There was no let up in violence, which US President George W. Bush has said may increase during the transition. US troops fought Mehdi Army militia in the holy city of Najaf and arrested a senior aide to their leader, Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

US tanks and airborne gunships were in action before dawn around Najaf, where medical staff said at least nine people were killed and 36 wounded in fighting at an ancient cemetery.

Within hours of a draft UN resolution being presented by the United States and Britain seeking Security Council endorsement of its transition plan, there were conflicting interpretations of how sovereign the new government would be over 150,000 US, British and other troops in Iraq.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who had appeared to go further than US Secretary of State Colin Powell in his vision of Iraqi control of US forces, denied he was at odds with Washington over the command of troops.

"There is absolutely no doubt at all that...the ultimate strategic and political decision-making passes to the Iraqi government after the 30th of June," he told parliament.

"Once strategic decisions have been made, the running of any operations is under the military forces and the commanders of those forces."

United Nations envoy Lakhdar Brahimi is in Baghdad to pick a government team that will satisfy competing claims among Iraq's various religious and ethnic groups and can be counted on to work with the Americans to organise elections in the new year.

Shahristani told Reuters: "The consultations have not been concluded yet and Mr Brahimi has not made his recommendation.

"I personally prefer to serve the people of Iraq in humanitarian fields as I have done since my escape from Abu Ghraib in 1991," he wrote in an e-mail in English. "However, putting the country on route to democracy and protecting the population from terrorists and violence is the responsibility of Iraqis, and we have to burden that responsibility."

Thirty government appointments are expected in a week or so.

Asked about Brahimi's choices, a source with close ties to the Bush administration said: "Shahristani for prime minister."